Top Turkish businesswoman: "Turkey is adjusting to global balances, not shifting axes"

Turkish foreign policy is adapting to the global balance of prosperity rather than experiencing an axis shift, according to Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (TUSIAD) head Umit Boyner. Writing in the August issue of TUSIAD's Gorus magazine on the debate over Turkey's foreign policy orientation, in an article entitled "From the Cold War Security Balance to the Global Balance of Prosperity," Boyner said, "Viewed from a comparative standpoint, we can see that value-creating areas of the world have moved from Turkey's west to its east, and there is nothing surprising in this shift. We should consider that any Turkish government would make similar foreign policy choices during such a time. Moreover, a foreign policy that fails to reflect domestic politics and isn't prosperity-oriented lacks true merit." Boyner added, "As restrictions imposed by Cold War-era foreign policy disappear in the region where Turkey is located, the driving factor carrying Turkey to the level of a regional power is Turkey's system based on democracy, secularism and the market economy." Elsewhere in the magazine, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu gave an interview again dismissing claims of an axis shift in Turkish foreign policy. "If axis shift claims imply that Turkey should act in line with positions determined by others, such behavior would ill suit Turkey and its potential," he said. Stating that the current issues which require Ankara to adopt a position concern Turkey more than any other country, Davutoglu said Turkey can't embrace a position determined by others on issues that concern itself so much. "Such a position wouldn't be our own position," he explained. Stressing that in the past, issues that called for Ankara to set a course didn't always have a direct bearing on Turkey, Davutoglu added, "Now everything has changed. For instance, as the Bosnia issue concerns Turkey more than Europeans, Turkey needs to determine its own position on it." Pointing to the changing nature of international relations in the post-Cold War era, Davutoglu said it is possible to become multi-polar but not multi-axial in this mercurial environment. "During the Cold War we could talk about an axis, but now, world politics are in constant, dynamic motion," he said. "In such a dynamic environment, you need a standing of your own to have a position (on any issue)."